What is Speciesism? Belief that moral status should be based on species designation Why does this matter to me? Because this plays a major role in your life- what you eat, how you vote and how you view the world. Richard Ryder- coined the term speciesism in 1970 at Oxford What this Class will cover (2 main ideas) (comparisons not demeaning of particularity of experiences- alex hartmans activism comparing holocaust to factory farming or slavery to forced animal servitude- we need to to break pre-conceived notions, epistemological bubbles- (episteme- greek for knowledge) logos- study of knowledge- ex. Live in a world where cows/pigs/chickens are pets, unthinkable to eat them, but we live off cats and dogs- this is arbitrary Thats a link Lisa Kemmerer 2011 (associate professor of philosophy and religions at Montana State University Billings Introduction to in Sister Species: Women, Animals, And Social Justice, pg. 28-30) Overtly associating women with nonhuman animals, as I have just done, is unsettling to many. Such association is viewed as offering a "more substantial threat to women than identification with nature" (Scholtmeijer 233), perhaps because nature is recognized as noble and magnificent, while nonhuman ani- malsespecially farmed animalsare viewed as expendable propertydumb and despicable. "The suggestion that the otherness of nonhuman animals can inform the otherness of women, therefore, appears to be counterproductive, to pull women down into a condition of defeat along with the animals" (Scholtmeijer 234). Consequently, feminists have too often bolstered the "oth- erness" of nonhumans in the hopes of extricating women from this ignoble association, liberating "white women and people of color from the onerous equation with animals and otherness," while leaving nonhuman animals to remain as exploitable "other" {Scholtmeijer 257; Adams, "Feminist" 204). (I experienced this type ofreaction from feminists at a conference in Stony Brook University. At the time, I did not understand their aggressive objections to identifying the links between the oppression of women and the oppression of female farmed animals.) By distancing themselves from other exploited females, such feminists endeavor to pass exploitation on to other exploited individuals, those whom they perceive as being yet lower on the hierarchical ladder (Kappeler 335). Such indifference to the exploitation of those whom they perceive as lesser mirrors the larger culture of hierarchy and oppression. In so behaving, these feminists "mirror patriarchal oppressors" (Dunayer, "Sexist" 19). Women, including feminists or ecofeminists, who prefer to ignore that nonhuman animals who are exploited for their reproductive abilities are oppressed females "closely resemble men who prefer to ignore that women are human" (Dunayer 19). Women who prefer not to recognize a cow as an objectified female also re-semble early feminists who focus exclusively on white, middle-class women. Feminists who "engage in this kind of denial, [who] support and participate in the oppression of the less powerful" in hopes of elevating themselves, are "not only hypocritical" but also engage in a "profound betrayal of [feminism's] deepest commitments" (Adams and Donovan, "Introduction" 8). To avoid such pitfalls, in light oflinked oppressions, feminists and ecofeminists "must specifically address the oppression of the nonhuman animals with whom we share the planet. In failing to do so," activists and tlieorists adopt "the sort of exclusionary theorizing" that they ostensibly reject {Gruen 61). For those who seek freedom "from violation by the powerfulpower and privilege must not be more widely shared, they must be radically dismantled" (Kappeler 335). Instead of feeding nonhuman individuals to the patriarchal monster in the hopes of saving themselves, women must turn the monster away.

A refutation (a) and genealogy (b) of the arguments for Speciesism Genealogy- a self-reflective tracing of history to try and look beyond ideologies we might currently hold. Ideology forms because knowledge is built on power. Genealogy helps us avoid that. (ex. Scientific Racism/Sexism) Michel Foucault- cool guy, French philosopher, developed idea of genealogy (ex. hysteria) 2) Speciesism as foundational to other humanisms. ..the claim to humanity and human rights will never succeed until it has reckoned with the otherness of nonhuman life forms the rights of human beings are in turn based in the lack of rights in the animals. Cary Wolfe in Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and Posthumanist Theory Nowhere is patriarchys iron fist as naked in the oppression of animals, which serves as the model and training ground for all other forms of oppression. (Aviva Cantor; quoted by Charles Patterson in The Eternal Treblinka) Arguments for Speciesism (5) Evolutionary Theory- the idea that humans are the pinnacle of evolution, the most evolved being, usually thought of historically as European white male Less intelligent or cognitively aware beings should not have rights- Picture chimp brain vs. human brain- that extra few ounces is the moral difference kek What about Down Syndrome or other mental disabilities? Animals are also very intelligent and similar to humans- get to that in a slide. Missing Traits Experience Humane argument Animals need to be controlled 1a. An Evolutionary Misinterpretation

Claim: Humans are the final stage in evolution Species designations do exist, (cant reproduce with each other/different skills) but the idea of higher and lower species does not exist empirically (Darwin proves) People misunderstand (as what happened with early 20th century scientists Darwins theory of evolution to argue that evolution occurred in stages, from lower to higher, and that humans were the pinnacle of evolution, and that white men were the most evolved of all the races (this will be important later). However, evolution is not linear or hierarchical Species, (as currently used) is a social construction used to justify how we treat animals (but we arent consistent with this!)- how we treat pets vs. animals we eat Next slide pictures More accurate view of evolution is as random, non-linear, non-hierarchical, progression due to particular pressures This means that development of different skills does not make one species any better than any other. Why value intelligence over something like memory (Chimps/sea lions), smell (dogs), or strength (chimps) Chimps visual memory Kyoto University study, a bunch of chimps wereshown randomly scattered numberson a computer screen. The numbers were then covered and the subjects were required to identify the position of each number in order Scientists attribute this impressive display of working memory to "eidetic imagery," or what is commonly known as photographic memory. chimps seem to have a really good visual memory -- they can remember details of an image even if they just glimpsed it for a couple of seconds. Smells- dog- obvious Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz wereable to teacha sea lion named Rio the concept of "sameness" by showing Rio a symbol and then showing her one card with the same symbol and one with a different one. Common experiment used on children with autism- Temple Grandin animal rights activist/autistic activist that made numerous breakthroughs in animal psychology- strong relation between cows brains and that of autistic humans. Anyway, After 10 freaking years, Rio was given a similar test, only this time it used numbers and letters instead of symbols. She was able to identify the numbers and letters that were the same,despite the fact that she had not performed the trick again at any point in the last decade. This is the longest known retention period of any animal species, and is all the more impressive due tothe 25-year lifespanof the sea lion. We'll see how well you remember the things you learned at 10 when you turn 50. Strengths chimpanzees have been shown to be about four times as strong as humans comparable in size, according to evolutionary biologistAlan Walker, formerly of Pennsylvania State University. Even within framework of intelligence/culture first it doesnt make sense to argue that Less intelligent or cognitively aware beings should not have rights- Picture chimp brain vs. human brain- that extra few ounces is the moral difference kek What about Down Syndrome or other mental disabilities? Math- monkeys can use it, Culture?- chimps and other land mammals have that too, pass on traditions and stories- even if less complex languages/understanding than English- Elephants can speak English, Dolphins sleep-talk (and have nightmares), Octopi build houses, pigeons have been taught to gamble and several have developed addictions, Cows develop best friends and cry when their friend is taken into the slaughterhouse. Even if you think rationality moral reasoning is the most important difference- not a reason to be a speciesist- Richard Ryder- Humans are definitely superior to animals, not equal at all in terms of moral reasoning- but thats why we ought to treat them better- we have higher degree of moral choice, rationality- these things command us to respect other life forms 1b. Evolutionism as Ideology Those whose know the races realize that the average white man is stronger of limb, fleeter of foot, clearer of eye, than the average yellow or red or black. William McGhee in 1899 the mental inferiority of the negro to the white or yellow races is a fact. The growth of the brain is .arrested by the premature closing of the cranial structures and lateral pressure of the frontal bone. Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1911 The male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled. Aristotle : McGhee kidnapped pygmies from Africa. called (Ota Benga 1906) the missing link, the lord of the savage- was housed in the bronx zoo and you could buy a photo for 25 cents. He killed himself when finally freed from the zoo. Belgium girl in 1958- put in human zoo- was fed bananas as if she was a monkey The evolutionary argument for racism has largely been rejected today, but this misinterpretation still exists in speciesism, arguing that humans are higher than nonhumans. Evolutionary Theory Missing Traits Experience Humane argument

MISSING TRAITS Almost all isms have been justified by claiming to possess a trait that entitled one to superior status Main traits are intelligence, language and a soul Remember Darwin- Intelligence is not inherently the best category and that standard isnt equally applied Mental disabilities etc. Language prairie dogs, bees, squid, birds, bats, monkeys, whales possess complex languages Almost all animal communications meet the 13 human conditions to be considered languages- Why do we assume animals dont have language? Because we put them in cages, we electrify them, we shave their bodies, we take them from their natural habitat and hurt them when they dont obey- they just show fear- humans go mute under conditions of extreme abuse too. When you observe their natural habitat without being invasive- animals have extremely complex languages. Also science is speciesist!- it has a preconceived notions of animals as dumb beasts. (Slobodchikoff in Chasing Dr. Dolittle) Soul- Depends on who you ask Ex. St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas Aquinas both believed animals have souls and there is an ongoing debate over whether or not animals go to heaven And this standard is arbitrary Ex. George Whitefield, Sparked the Great Awakening of American Protestant Evangelicalism- argued that black people could be enslaved because they did not have souls. History of Intelligence Argument Aristotle- The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities; we should regard the female nature as afflicted with a natural defectiveness. Nietzsche- When a woman has scholarly inclinations there is usually something wrong with her sexual organs. Black people were called irrational and this was as a reason to continue protective custody (slavery) and to justify their virtually limitless abuse. (Speigel, 25) The only qualification individuals should need to make wrong for us to dominate their lives is that they possess life. (Speigel) In other words, different traits should be irrelevant

Emotions/Pain are the same as ours! Difference is not in type but degree. (Darwin) Ethologists have determined (and common sense tells us) that their distress is huge. Antebellum racists made a similar claim that black people could not love, but only feel animal lust. Some even said that black people felt little or no pain (A common argument used against animal rights) (Speigel, 65) Evolutionary Theory Humans as superior Missing Traits Degree of experience Humane argument (better life argument and animal testing) Better life argument [The abolition of the slave trade] would be extreme cruelty to the African savages, a portion of whom it saves from massacre, or intolerable bondage in their own country, and introduces them into a much happier state of life.- James Boswell, (1740-1795) In the eighteenth century it was widely argued that domestication was good for animals; it civilized them and increased their numbers: we multiply life sensation and enjoyment.- Keith Thomas in Man and the Natural World quoting Benjamin Rush (1746-1813) Continues today with humane meat, free-range chickens, etc. Images that say organic cotton from free-range slaves and onion image on how we humanely kill animals Animal Testing most animal experiments not relevant to human health and do not contribute to medical advances. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 92% of drugs approved via animal testing fail in human testing (and out of the 8% that work most are rejected for side effects unique to humans) FDA (Food and Drug Administration) Over half (54%) of side effects arent found by animal tests (Clin Pharmacol) As if that wasnt bad enough 75% of the side effects identified (of the 46% from above) are meaningless/dont happen in humans [AP Fletcher in Proc. R. Soc. Med journal] Basically- if animal testing says theres a risk, its more likely there is none at all, if animal testing says there isnt a risk, its more likely that there will be one Why? Physiological reactions to drugs vary enormously from species to species. Penicillin kills guinea pigs but is inactive in rabbits; aspirin kills cats and causes birth defects in rats, mice, guinea pigs, dogs, and monkeys; and morphine, a depressant in humans, stimulates goats, cats, and horses. Further, animals in laboratories typically display behavior indicating extreme psychological distress, and experimenters acknowledge that the use of these stressed-out animals jeopardizes the validity of the data produced. Animals cannot explain that they feel depressed, suicidal, blurred vision or aching joints to humans. Or sometimes they just cant get side effects like humans do- for example- rats dont have spleens- any side effects for spleens Harms Testing does Only one law on the books that deals with lab animalsthe Animal Welfare Actit allows animals to be burned, shocked, poisoned, isolated, starved, forcibly restrained, addicted to drugs, and brain-damaged. No experiment, no matter how painful or trivial, is prohibited and pain-killers are not required. Even you dont have to use of animals and alternatives are available, the law does not require that they be usedand often they arent. Also the Act specifically excludes rats, mice, birds and cold-blooded animals, more than 95 percent of the animals used in laboratories are not subject to the minimal protections provided by federal laws. There are easy alternatives Human clinical and epidemiological studies, human tissue- and cell-based research methods, cadavers, sophisticated high-fidelity human patient simulators and computational models are more reliable, more precise, less expensive, and more humane than animal experiments. Progressive scientists have used human brain cells to develop a model micro-organs, which can be used to study tumors, as well as artificial skin and bone marrow. We can now test irritancy on protein membranes, produce and test vaccines using human tissues, and perform pregnancy tests using blood samples instead of killing rabbits. Animal experiments dont persist because they are the best science, they persist because of experimenters personal biases and archaic traditions. History of Testing Logic Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (1932-1972) The longest involuntary medical experiment on human beings in history performed on poor black people Were never told they were being given syphilis Never gave them post-study treatment, just let many of them die from related complications Guatamala in 2010 U.S. did the same exact thing except now with both syphilis and gonorrhea to prisoners, mental health patients and soldiers. Infected 700 people without their knowledge Reasoned that the benefit to humankind was more important than the ethical flaws (sneaky exclusion of the subjects from the category of human) Animals are dangerous arg After Reconstruction there was a fear of the mad dog ex-slave, who had to be suppressed to protect white women: this led to the formation of the KKK (similar to the anti-pitbull movement) The threat of these attacks is socially constructed. (not real) and in fact go the other way Movie poster of a movie fro 1915 called regeneration Speciesim as foundational to other -isms Jacques Derrida, rebellious bad boy of philosophy, extremely important French philosopher, used to have a cool mustache but got rid of it. - argued that normalization of violence allowed for the Noncriminal Putting to Death of the Other- basically that it always gives us a way to call something/someone a non-human, and because we can kill nonhumans, we can kill that thing weve labeled- called subhumanization logic Modern Racism- Example of Richard Sherman- Tweets that compare Sherman to an animal signal a power fundamental to racism- to mark Black people as not-human. Racism has the ability to take away His Human card so that killing him doesnt matter. Happens in other things (Guantanamo etc) Ex. Alex Hershaft. born in Poland in 1934 and survived the Warsaw Ghetto before being liberated, along with my mother, by the Allies. I organized for social justice causes in Israel and the US, worked on animal farms while in college, earned a PhD in chemistry, and ultimately decided to devote my life to animal rights and veganism, which I have done for nearly 40 years (since 1976). My first hand experience with animal farming was instrumental. I noted the many similarities between how the Nazis treated us and how we treat animals, especially those raised for food. Among these are the use of cattle cars for transport and crude wood crates for housing, the cruel treatment and deception about impending slaughter, the processing efficiency and emotional detachments of the perpetrators, and the piles of assorted body parts - mute testimonials to the victims they were once a part of.

The split in the minds of racists (the divide between the idea of Blackness as a bad thing and the idea of Whiteness as a good thing- is based on the original divide of the human/animal divide)- because, Malaklou- set the stage for this distinction, the understanding of a community (humans) that needs to be policed and distanced from in order to be protected from danger/outsiders (animals, nonhumans) has cemented in our minds an understanding of commonality built on exclusion Shadee Malaklou Understanding anti-Black racism as species-ism: Reflection on Richard Shermans affective excess and the Twitterverses response Slavery it seems more than coincidental that the region that yields first agriculture, (the Middle East), is the same one that yields the first evidence of slavery. Dr. Charles Patterson in The Eternal Treblinka slavery was little more than the extension of domestication to humans. the enslavement of animals served as the model and inspiration for the enslavement of humans Dr. Charles Patterson in The Eternal Treblinka Sexism The seuxal subjugation of women was modeled after the domestication of animals. The domestication of women followed the initiation of animal keeping, men began to control womens reproductive capacity, enforcing sexual repression. Elizabeth Fisher, quoted by Dr. Charles Patterson in The Eternal Treblinka The hierarchical positioning of human over animal intensified human cruelty and laid the foundation for human slavery. humans first made friends with animals and then killed them. To do so, they had to kill some sensitivity in themselves. Elizabeth Fisher, quoted by Dr. Charles Patterson in The Eternal Treblinka Finally, Why is this important? Unnecessary Suffering- All animals feel pain, suffer when they are killed no matter what 45 BILLION land animals, 85 billion marine animals killed for food; 39 billion more in fashion/cosmetic industries- Total of 169 billion animals in just those two industries- millions more in other things like hunting, breeding trade etc. -Dr. Steven Best (Philosopher/Professor at UTexas) Because Animals and Humans dont deserve the horrors of speciesism And we can do things to stop that- Im not just talking about veganism but full disclosure (I am) but rather just to know about this issue. Awareness is really important because people dont question things like speciesism because they take it for granted- they are born in it, they are always told not to question it Pig and cow Pig in lil clothes Bby from 2-6 months with his tongue out

Nonhuman emotions: love, emotional pain, fear, hope, joy, sadness, shame, grief, sorrow, elation, moodiness, anger. Etc. (Reminder- we are animals too.) Difference is not in type but degree (degree of intelligence, degree of speed, degree of emotion). This goes both ways! Some animals may feel more deeply than us!- ex. Dogs, cows, elephants, are more intense in their attachments to humans and each other than we are to them or to other humans. Brain size =/ emotional fulfillment Ex. Mother cows and their calves cry out when they are separated from each other- exactly the same as what humans would do. Pain